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Webster 1913 Edition

Queen

Queen

,
Noun.
[OE.
quen
,
quene
, queen, quean, AS.
cwēn
wife, queen, woman; akin to OS.
quān
wife, woman, Icel.
kvān
wife, queen, Goth.
qēns
. √221. See
Quean
.]
1.
The wife of a king.
2.
A woman who is the sovereign of a kingdom; a female monarch;
as, Elizabeth,
queen
of England; Mary,
queen
of Scots.
In faith, and by the heaven’s
quene
.
Chaucer.
3.
A woman eminent in power or attractions; the highest of her kind;
as, a
queen
in society; – also used figuratively of cities, countries, etc.
“ This queen of cities.” “ Albion, queen of isles.”
Cowper.
4.
The fertile, or fully developed, female of social bees, ants, and termites.
5.
(Chess)
The most powerful, and except the king the most important, piece in a set of chessmen.
6.
A playing card bearing the picture of a queen;
as, the
queen
of spades
.
Queen apple
.
[Cf. OE.
quyne aple
quince apple.]
A kind of apple; a queening.
“Queen apples and red cherries.”
Spenser.
–
Queen bee
(Zool.)
,
a female bee, especially the female of the honeybee. See
Honeybee
.
–
Queen conch
(Zool.)
,
a very large West Indian cameo conch (
Cassis cameo
). It is much used for making cameos.
–
Queen consort
,
the wife of a reigning king.
Blackstone.
–
Queen dowager
,
the widow of a king.
–
Queen gold
,
formerly a revenue of the queen consort of England, arising from gifts, fines, etc.
–
Queen mother
,
a queen dowager who is also mother of the reigning king or queen.
–
Queen of May
.
See
May queen
, under
May
.
–
Queen of the meadow
(Bot.)
,
a European herbaceous plant (
Spiræa Ulmaria
). See
Meadowsweet
.
–
Queen of the prairie
(Bot.)
,
an American herb (
Spiræa lobata
) with ample clusters of pale pink flowers.
–
Queen pigeon
(Zool.)
,
any one of several species of very large and handsome crested ground pigeons of the genus
Goura
, native of New Guinea and the adjacent islands. They are mostly pale blue, or ash-blue, marked with white, and have a large occipital crest of spatulate feathers. Called also
crowned pigeon
,
goura
, and
Victoria pigeon
.
–
Queen regent
, or
Queen regnant
,
a queen reigning in her own right.
–
Queen's Bench
.
See
King's Bench
.
–
Queen's counsel
,
Queen's evidence
.
See
King's counsel
,
King's evidence
, under
King
.
–
Queen's delight
(Bot.)
,
an American plant (
Stillinqia sylvatica
) of the Spurge family, having an herbaceous stem and a perennial woody root.
–
Queen's metal
(Metal.)
,
an alloy somewhat resembling pewter or britannia, and consisting essentially of tin with a slight admixture of antimony, bismuth, and lead or copper.
–
Queen's pigeon
.
(Zool.)
Same as
Queen pigeon
, above.
–
Queen's ware
,
glazed English earthenware of a cream color.
–
Queen's yellow
(Old Chem.)
,
a heavy yellow powder consisting of a basic mercuric sulphate; – formerly called
turpetum minerale
, or
Turbith's mineral
.

Queen

,
Verb.
I.
To act the part of a queen.
Shak.

Queen

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Queened
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Queening
.]
(Chess.)
To make a queen (or other piece, at the player's discretion) of by moving it to the eighth row;
as, to
queen
a pawn
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Queen

QUEEN

, n.
1.
The consort of a king; a queen consort.
2.
A woman who is the sovereign of a kingdom; a queen-regent; as Elizabeth, queen of England; Mary, queen of Scotland.
3.
The sovereign of a swarm of bees, or the female of the hive.
A hive of bees cannot subsist without a queen.
Queen of the meadows, meadow sweet, a plant of the genus Spiraea.

QUEEN

,
Verb.
I.
To play the queen; to act the part or character of a queen.

Definition 2024

Queen

Queen

See also: queen

English

Proper noun

Queen

  1. A title given to queens.
    Queen Elizabeth II
  2. A surname​, originating as a nickname

German

Etymology

From English queen.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kviːn/, /kwiːn/

Noun

Queen f ‎(genitive Queen, plural Queens)

  1. The Queen of England (and various political superstructures which contain England)
  2. (colloquial) woman who, in a certain environment, enjoys special attention
  3. (homosexual slang) queen; effeminate homosexual man

Declension

Synonyms

queen

queen

See also: Queen

English

A queen (chess)

Alternative forms

Noun

queen ‎(plural queens)

  1. A female monarch. Example: Queen Victoria.
  2. The wife or widow of a king.
    Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
  3. (chess) The most powerful piece, able to move any number of spaces horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
  4. (card games) A playing card with the letter "Q" and the image of a queen on it, the twelfth card in a given suit.
  5. A powerful or forceful female person.
  6. (LGBT, slang, often derogatory) An effeminate male homosexual. (Compare drag queen and street queen. See usage notes.)
    • (Can we date this quote?), Bebe Scarpi, quoted in 2007, Stephan Cohen, The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York (ISBN 1135905673), page 196:
      Despite one's opinion of Sylvia I can attest to the purity of her intent and dedication, and, no one will dare deny she is one gutsy queen.
  7. A reproductive female animal in a hive, such as an ant, bee, termite or wasp.
  8. An adult female cat valued for breeding. See also tom.
  9. A queen olive.
    • 1984, United States International Trade Commission, Bottled green olives from Spain (page A-24)
      Prices for the two main types of Spanish style green olives - manzanillas and queens - vary according to the size of the crop of each. In some years queens will be more expensive than manzanillas […]

Usage notes

  • (LGBT): The term can be either derogatory or a self-identification. (Compare nigger.)
  • (LGBT): Some of the people who were historically (in the late 1960s and 1970s) described as "queens" or "drag queens" or "street queens" are now sometimes considered transgender. Some people, like Sylvia Rivera, self-identified as both a "transgender person" and a "street queen".

Synonyms

Derived terms

See also

Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text)
♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟
king queen castle, rook bishop knight pawn
Playing cards in English · playing cards (layout · text)
ace deuce, two three four five six seven
eight nine ten jack queen king joker

Translations

See also

Verb

queen ‎(third-person singular simple present queens, present participle queening, simple past and past participle queened)

  1. To make a queen.
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To act the part of a queen; to queen it.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
  3. (chess) To promote a pawn, usually to a queen.
  4. (BDSM, slang, transitive, of a female) To sit on the face of (a partner) to receive oral sex.
    • 2000, "Lorelei", The Mistress Manual: The Good Girl's Guide to Female Dominance
      Try Queening him. Have him lie on his back while you sit on his face (make sure he has an airway through either his mouth or his nose).
    • 2007, Madelynne Ellis, Dark Designs
      ...not Eloise, sat queening him. He couldn't wait to tip her velvet. He wanted to come, but not here, with these three. It was time to extract himself.
    • 2012, Yolanda Celbridge, The Castle of Maldona
      She saw his pink tongue flickering on Clare's exposed nympha as she queened him, her love juices shining on his chin and throat […]

Translations

See also

Etymology

From Middle English queen, quene, cwen, from Old English cwēn, cwǣn ‎(“woman; wife, consort; queen, empress, royal princess”), from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz ‎(“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn ‎(“woman”). Cognate with Scots queen, wheen ‎(“queen”), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene ‎(“elderly woman”)), Dutch kween ‎(“woman past child-bearing age”), Swedish kvinna ‎(“woman”), Icelandic kvon ‎(“wife”), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 ‎(qēns, “wife”), Norwegian dialectal kvån ‎(“wife”). Related to Old English cwene ‎(“woman; female serf, quean”), see quean.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kwiːn/, enPR: kwēn
  • Rhymes: -iːn
  • Homophone: quean

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